Top Cuts – another Case Study

This is another case study to work through. Read the following information carefully, then do the tasks at the bottom.

Top Cuts own a chain of hair dressing salons throughout the UK. They pride themselves on being able to give professional advice to clients about possible new hair styles.

Top Cuts uses a system to help them. When this was first introduced, it was considered to be ‘state of the art’ in the hair dressing industry. The system stored photographs of new hair designs, celebrity hair cuts as well as the general ‘day to day’ styles. Customers could run a search for particular styles by choosing categories such as ‘long’, ‘layered’, ‘celebrity’. They were then asked further questions about their hair type, hair length, hair condition. The database would then return a selection of suggested styles. From these, the hair stylist would assess the individual client and make suggestions about which styles might be suitable.

A clipart image of a hairdryer and comb Top Cuts realise that their system is not perfect. There have been occasions where the stylist thought a style would suit their client, when in fact the final effect was not so flattering. They have decided that their system needs to be updated to take advantage of the latest technology and have asked you to help.

You have recently heard about a new system that is able to store many thousands of examples of hair styles. A customer who is considering a change of style is asked to sit in front of a small camera attached to the PC. A digital image is taken of the customer and the chosen hairstyle is automatically superimposed. This gives the client and the stylist a much more accurate idea of the end result. It can even take colours, highlights and hair extensions into account.

This might be just the system to suit Top Cuts. However, a colleague of yours recently tried to introduce a similar system into a rival chain of hairdressers. Her clients were in a hurry to get the system up and running. She decided that to speed things up, she would not follow any recognised processes for introducing new systems and just get the new system in as fast as possible. Unfortunately, it failed very quickly. The hair stylists did not understand how to use the system, the camera was unable to take an image of the customer that could then be superimposed with the hairstyle and the hardware did not have enough processing power to run the system adequately. You are keen to avoid making the same mistakes on your project.

Your Tasks

Use the website and any other resource (hint) to help you complete the following tasks:

  1. Businesses always need to upgrade their systems at some stage. Explain what might prompt them to do so.
  2. It is a known fact that many new systems fail while they are being developed and during the implementation process. Explain the reasons for such failures.
  3. A process has been developed to reduce the possibility of failure? What is the name of this process?
  4. Imagine that you are the project manager for introducing this new system into Top Cuts. Write a short report using the SLC principles. You will need to explain what you would need to do at each stage in order to ensure that your project is successful.
    Layout your report in the correct sequence ensuring that each stage is clearly identified.